The lighting systems associated with a travelling concert tour must be easily transported from one performance venue to another. An illustrative lighting system is the Vari-Lite Series 200, with its VL2, VL3, VL4 and VL5 lamp configurations. Modern systems, often comprised of lighting instruments having sensitive optical components, are typically disassembled between performances and transported in specially designed protective containers, such as those described in copending patent application Ser. No. 940,663, filed Sept. 4, 1992, that permit the sensitive instruments to withstand the rigors associated with transport.
Accordingly, a typical lighting system, upon arrival at each performance venue, must be erected prior to each performance. To accomplish this labor-intensive task, the various sections that comprise the truss assembly must be unloaded from the truck and assembled inside the venue in the required configuration. Thereafter, the truss assembly is raised to a height of about four feet above the venue floor to facilitate the hanging of the lighting instruments on the truss assembly. Each lighting instrument must be unpacked from its protective case before being hung in its proper position on the truss assembly. Additionally, electrical cabling must be connected to the lighting instruments, and then dressed and secured to the truss members. Finally, the completed lighting rig can be hoisted to the required height above the venue floor so that construction of the stage can begin.
Although considerable savings of time and expense would clearly be achieved by transporting the lighting instruments from venue to venue mounted directly on their associated truss section, other problems are encountered using such an arrangement which, if overcome, could lead to significantly increased efficiencies in the transportation and set-up of automated lighting systems.
Specifically, in order to achieve such an advance, the truss sections must adequately protect the mounted luminaires from the damage associated with the shock and vibration experienced during transport. Additionally, the truss sections must provide for two modes of operation: a deployed mode that will expose the luminaires for operation during a performance and a transport mode that will shield and protect the luminaires. In the deployed mode, the truss section must provide each luminaire with enough clearance to allow unobstructed pan and tilt of the luminaires' moving lamp head assemblies. Furthermore, in the deployed mode the truss members should allow the luminaires to be sufficiently lowered to hang below the truss sections such that the light beams are not blocked at certain angles. In the transport mode, on the other hand, the truss section must provide the necessary protection to prevent damage to the luminaire.
"Pre-hung" truss sections have been used before in association with conventional luminaires, utilizing a sliding bar for mounting the conventional luminaire. In such a system, the truss modules are assembled in the required configuration and raised off the floor. Thereafter, a stage hand releases a manual catch which secures the mounting bar and lowers the bar to its fully deployed position where the bar rests upon stops. The lighting rig may then be raised to the required operating height. Following a performance, the rig is lowered to a working height (about four feet above the floor) and the stage hands manually raise the mounting bars until the catches engage, thereby securing the bar and the lighting instruments attached thereto inside the truss sections for transport. The absence of more sensitive optical components in these conventional luminaires has allowed these pre-hung trusses to be constructed without special attachments to secure the lighting instruments in the truss.
Automated luminaires, such as the Vari-Lite models mentioned above, however, require special protection to hold the head and yoke assemblies in a fixed relation to their upper enclosures, since a severe movement of the head and yoke with respect to the upper enclosure during transportation could cause the yoke to break. A truss unit for mounting automated luminaires is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,336 to Richardson et al. The disclosed "dimorphic truss unit" includes hinged side frames which can be folded up to a first position for operation of the stage lights mounted to the truss unit. The side frames can be folded down to a second position around the stage lights for protection during transportation and storage. The disclosed truss unit, however, does not include any shock mount or vibration isolation devices that would serve to protect the stage lights from damage due to vibration, nor does it include any support means for the yoke and lamp head assemblies of the stage lights installed therein. Nor does the truss unit include an automated dual axis deployment mechanism which can deploy luminaires from a stored, shipping position to a deployed, operating position.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a support system for lighting instruments that provides protection for the lighting instruments while traveling between performance venues and provides a motorized mechanism for deploying the lighting instruments to a plurality of different operating positions after the truss sections are assembled and hoisted.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a support system that eliminates the requirement for separate shipping cases having cushioning material for automated luminaires, in addition to eliminating the steps of unpacking and hanging the lighting instruments before each performance.